Title

Author

Defense Date

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Mathematical Sciences

First Advisor

Jill Hardin

Abstract

Since its inception in the 1950s, operations research has been used in a number of industries, including the energy industry. Documentation of its use in exploration, production, gasoline blending, oil spill management, coal mining, coal handling, and coal mixing is extensive. However, considerably less documented research exists for one significant customer of many of these products: the electric utility. This work reviews refereed literature from United States operations research journals that document the use of operations research in United States electric utility operations. Applications that centered specifically on the areas of thermal energy generation, transmission, distribution, capacity planning, electric power service options, and other general operations-related activities were included. Applications solely related to plant siting, general energy policy, or work that focused on electricity as a commodity and primarily investigated the use of financial instruments, were not included.